Lebanon's mountains offer summer refuge

Hospitality, food compensate for other issues

Hamza Hendawi, Associated Press

Published
11:57 am EDT, Friday, August 24, 2018

In this Thursday, July 26, 2018 photo, people participate in a summer festival designed to attract visitors with music, food stalls and swimming pools in the mountain village of Faraya, Lebanon. Whether it's war or peace, Lebanon's high mountain ranges have long been a favorite refuge for the Lebanese living in the cities, towns and villages below and along the Mediterranean coastline. The Lebanese drive up the mountains to avoid the summer's heat or, for those with deep pockets, to ski in winter. (AP Photo/Hamza Hendawi) less

In this Thursday, July 26, 2018 photo, people participate in a summer festival designed to attract visitors with music, food stalls and swimming pools in the mountain village of Faraya, Lebanon. Whether it's ... more

Photo: Hamza Hendawi

Photo: Hamza Hendawi

Image
1of/4

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 4

In this Thursday, July 26, 2018 photo, people participate in a summer festival designed to attract visitors with music, food stalls and swimming pools in the mountain village of Faraya, Lebanon. Whether it's war or peace, Lebanon's high mountain ranges have long been a favorite refuge for the Lebanese living in the cities, towns and villages below and along the Mediterranean coastline. The Lebanese drive up the mountains to avoid the summer's heat or, for those with deep pockets, to ski in winter. (AP Photo/Hamza Hendawi) less

In this Thursday, July 26, 2018 photo, people participate in a summer festival designed to attract visitors with music, food stalls and swimming pools in the mountain village of Faraya, Lebanon. Whether it's ... more

Photo: Hamza Hendawi

Lebanon's mountains offer summer refuge

1 / 4

Back to Gallery

Faraya, Lebanon

The passengers' chatter on the Beirut-bound flight was far from reassuring. Taxi drivers were striking. Traffic was going to be bad. Add the heat and suffocating humidity of a typical summer day and you're hit with a powerful urge to get out of town.

The mountains? Absolutely.

Whether during war or peace, Lebanon's high mountain ranges have long been a favorite refuge for Lebanese living in cities, towns and villages along the Mediterranean coastline.

"If anything happens here (in the mountains) now, then it's probably the end of the world," said 24-year-old old hotelier Elyse Salamah.

Just a short drive from Beirut, the mountains offer an escape from summer heat and, for those with deep pockets, a place to ski in winter.

Others make the trip in pursuit of culinary bliss: the perfect tabbouleh, the ultimate hummus or the divine pastry kunafeh.

The mountains saw some of the worst battles of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. But they have also served as a safe haven from conflict, including the 2006 war between the Shiite Hezbollah group and Israel, when tens of thousands fled there to escape the month of fighting and bombardment.

My destination was Faraya, a ski resort high enough to be sufficiently cool in July.

It took nearly an hour and a half to drive the winding, mountainous route. The moment I stepped out of the car at my destination — a small family-run hotel — I knew I made the right decision. The temperature was noticeably cooler and less humid than Beirut.

But what does one do in a ski resort in summer?

Not an awful lot, to be honest. But you can hike on nature trails if you feel up to it. One trek takes you up to an imposing statue of St. Charbel, a 19th-century saint revered by Lebanon's Maronite Christians. A hooded monk, he raises a hand in blessing over the landscape of mountains, barren in the summer, snow-covered in winter.

Or you can drive around the surrounding hills in a quad (all-terrain vehicle) or just swim and sunbathe at any of the many small pools in the village, which charge a fee for a day's use.

But if you are a big city boy like myself — my hometown, Cairo, is a city of 20 million with the unflattering distinction of being among the world's most polluted cities — then a short break in Faraya offers a rare opportunity to kick back, relax and savor Lebanese food.

And the village offers visitors unique little experiences you rarely encounter in big city life.

Like most other mountain villages, almost all hotels and restaurants in Faraya are family run, so staying there has a personal feel. From where I sat in my hotel's dining room, I could hear the chef, Mahmoud Mohammed, in the kitchen cooking, chopping the onions and parsley for my tabbouleh. And at every meal, he came out to discuss the food with me.

Or, take the woman running the local supermarket. When I asked her, "Are these strawberries grown in Lebanon?" she clearly thought it was a silly question. "Yes, they come from my back garden," she declared.

Go to a restaurant in the center of the village and you can be sure you'll find three generations of family involved in running it.

One thing visitors must remember when in Faraya, which is on the Matn mountains range, that this is not the Swiss or French Alps with tourist-poster landscapes. In the summer, the mountains around Faraya are dry and treeless.

And all through Lebanon's mountains, there are the infrastructure woes that plague the country.

But don't focus too much on the litter on roadsides or in some of the mountain streams. Don't complain too much about the quality of the running water in your hotel room (drink only bottled water). The country's economic problems also mean the mountains are dotted with half-finished structures meant to be hotels or holiday apartments.

Electricity? Make sure that your hotel has its own power generator. The alternative would be maddeningly frequent power cuts.